By Joy Russell
Madison County
Genealogical & Historical Society [published in the 01/31/08 edition of The Madison County Record]

One hundred and forty-five years ago, approximately 5000
Union soldiers were camped about a mile east of Huntsville in a field located
on the Samuel P. Vaughn farm.The Union
troops, under the command of General Francis Herron, arrived here on January 7th,
1863, and remained until about January 18th, 1863. These Union
soldier’s actions during this short period included pursuing bands of
Confederate guerillas operating in this area and chasing groups of bushwhackers
who were roaming the countryside.

On January 10th, 1863, nine men who were Southern
sympathizers, were removed from the guardhouse in the predawn hours of a cold,
icy morning and were taken to a field on the banks of Vaughn’s Branch where
they were lined up and shot by members of Company G of the 8th Missouri Calvary
commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Elias Briggs Baldwin.Eight of the men died as a result of this execution and the ninth
man survived but was shot in the back of the head with the bullet going through
his head, knocking out a lot of his teeth.He succeeded in crawling about a quarter of a mile to the nearby home of
Mrs. Elizabeth Vaughn, where she nursed him for over a month and after his
recovery he returned to Mississippi.This man told the story of what had happened and who was responsible for
it, as did Hugh Berry who survived for one day after being shot.

The events of the Huntsville Massacre weren’t
talked about for years after it happened and weren’t even mentioned in Goodspeed’s 1889 History of Madison County,
which recording all of the historical events of importance. It wasn’t until an article telling about the
murders appeared in the Northwest
Arkansas Times in September 1974, entitled “The Gravestones Bear Witness”
by John I. Smith, that people began to talk about what had happened and to do dig
into the events leading up to it. Why
wasn’t it talked about, you may ask.
Madison County was split in its alligiance to the North and the South
during The Civil War. Neighbors fought
against neighbors and men who had been friends became enemies. Even members of the same family fought
against each other. The murders of these eight men affected Madison County in
an enormous way as you will see later.

Events Leading Up To the Massacre

Isaac Murphy and two of his daughters moved to Huntsville
before the Civil War and in 1856, Isaac Murphy was elected to the State Senate.In 1861 Murphy was elected to represent the
people of Madison County as a Unionist delegate to the State Secession Convention
to vote on the matter of the state’s secession from the Union.Murphy voted “no” on secession and after two
voting sessions, Murphy was the lone delegate in the entire state who voted
“not in favor of Arkansas leaving the Union.”Huntsville residents initially approved of his vote, however, as the
Civil War went on, people turned against Murphy and he was threatened with
bodily harm in Huntsville resulting in him leaving the area and taking a civilian
position with the Union Army under General Samuel Curtis.Colonel James M. Johnson and his brother,
Frank Johnson, both from Madison County were also Union supporters and were at
Pea Ridge with these same troops, along with another Madison County resident,
E. D. Ham.

Murphy wanted his daughters to leave Huntsville but these
plans failed to work out and they remained in Huntsville where they were constantly
harassed by locals.In the fall of
1862, just before the Battle of Prairie Grove, Murphy’s daughters visited him where
he was stationed with the troops near Pea Ridge.On November 16, 1862, the daughters were returned to Huntsville
along with an escort of twenty-five Union soldiers for their protection.Due to Confederate activity in Huntsville, the
escort of soldiers stopped outside of Huntsville and the Murphy daughters
continued home on their own.

The twenty-five Union soldiers who had escorted the girls
were surprised by local guerillas just west of Huntsville on Holman Creek, and
eighteen of them were killed in the skirmish.The remaining seven soldiers returned to Pea Ridge and reported the
events that had taken place.These
events angered the Union commanders, as well as Isaac Murphy, and were not soon
to be forgotten.After the Battle of
Prairie Grove on 7 December 1862, the Union group under the command of General
Herron was given orders to head east to the Mississippi River to join forces
with General Grant in his push towards Vicksburg.

By heading east, these soldiers would go directly through
Madison County, where there was knowledge of Confederate activity.In addition, this provided an opportunity to
follow up on the harassment of the Murphy girls and those who might have taken
part in the slaughter of the Union soldiers who had escorted the girls to
Huntsville.

Herron’s army along with Isaac Murphy arrived in Huntsville
on January 7, 1863.Within days, these
Union troops rounded up citizens who were believed to be Southern sympathizers
and held them in the guardhouse.Before
daylight on January 10th, 1863, Chesley H. Boatright; William Berry;
Hugh Samuel Berry; John William Moody; Askin Hughes; John Hughes; Watson P.
Stevens; Parson Robert Coleman Young; and another man believed to be John or
Bill Parks, were taken out of the guardhouse and led to the encampment of the
Union soldiers just outside of town where they were executed by being
shot.All of the men died with the
exception of Mr. Parks, who was the man who crawled to the Vaughn house and
recovered.Within a few days of the execution,
the Union troops left the area.Five of
the men killed were buried in local cemeteries by their families.It is believed that the remaining three men
were buried at the site of the execution, and for many years a wooden fence
surrounded that area.Each year the
site would be decorated with wildflowers and mussel shells in honor of the men
who died.

What happened to the soldiers who shot the men?

Lieutenant Colonel Elias Briggs Baldwin, who was the
commander of Company G, 8th Missouri Calvary, was charged with the violation of
the Sixth Article of War, for the murders of prisoners of war before they had
been tried, convicted and sentenced to death by legal authority of the United
States.Baldwin denied that he was
responsible for the murders and the court tried to get the testimony of Isaac
Murphy and General Herron, but they never showed up at the proceedings.Charges against Baldwin were dropped and he
received an honorable discharge on 24 June 1863.The final result was that no
one was ever punished for these crimes.

There was never any solid evidence that linked Isaac Murphy,
Colonel James Johnson and E. D. Ham to this event, but many locals believed
that they played a big part in the arrest and execution of those men who were
shot.Nothing was ever discovered as to
the identity of those responsible for the deaths of the eighteen men of the
Union escort.

How did the Massacre Affect Madison County?

Odeon Lodge No. 44, Free and Accepted Masons, was chartered
in Huntsville in 1851.There was only one
college in the state and in December 1854, The Arkansas General Assembly
approved a 100 year charter for the “Huntsville Masonic Institute” and gave it
full authority to “confer such degrees in the Arts and Sciences as are usually
conferred in the United States.”Within
three weeks, the “Pleasant View Female Seminary” was also approved, and all of
the sudden Huntsville, Arkansas, was the home of two colleges.Isaac Murphy
and his daughters came to Huntsville to work at these two colleges.

Many men of the area were members of this lodge and ended up
pledging their loyalties to different sides during the Civil War.It is uncertain exactly what happened in
Odeon Lodge after the War, but several men were tried for unMasonic conduct
before the Lodge membership and expelled.After this trial and expulsion of members, the Lodge rarely met, and in
1875, the Grand Master of Masons of Arkansas ordered the charter taken away and
the doors of Odeon Lodge were closed.When this happened the two colleges in Huntsville supported by the Lodge
closed their doors forever.It was
determined later that the trial by the Lodge was not proper, and two years
later a new charter was obtained under the name of Huntsville Lodge No. 364,
which is still active today.

Kevin Hatfield states, “If this had not happened, I think
there was a very good chance that those two colleges would still be in
operation today.Imagine how Huntsville
would look and also Madison County, with two universities that were already
several years older than the University of Arkansas.Oh yes, Colonel James Johnson was the one who picked the site for
the U of A in Fayetteville.He was on
their board of trustees and had we not hacked him off, he might have said,
let’s put this U of A in Huntsville.We
might be calling the hogs here!!”The
Charter for the college was active for 100 years, so at any time up to 1954 a
college could have been established in Huntsville.

Murphy went on to become the 8th Governor of
Arkansas; he died on 8 September 1882, and is buried in Huntsville Cemetery.

The Huntsville Massacre Monument

A granite monument has been erected at the site of the
Massacre by The Madison County Genealogical & Historical Society and
Huntsville Lodge No. 364, Free and Accepted Masons.A ceremony was held on 30 September 2006, to honor the men who
died there, and to dedicate the monument.Huntsville Lodge No. 364 conducted a ceremony for the men who were
Masons.Members of the First Arkansas
Light Artillery, Sons of the Confederate Veterans, and Civil War re-enactors
saluted the men with three volleys fired from muskets, while Confederate flags
surrounded the monument and eight grapevine wreaths, each bearing the name of a
man who died here, stood along the banks of Vaughn Branch. Luella Wood, a local re-enactor dressed in a
hoop-skirted mourning outfit, read a poem by Civil War-era poet, Henry
Timrod.The monument is located on
private property and is not accessible by the public.

Photos - Dedication of the Monument
on 30 September 2006(Click on photo for larger image)

Monument reads:“Location of The Huntsville Massacre on 10 January 1863.In Memory of the brave men of Huntsville and
Madison County, who were executed at this location by Union soldiers.This monument erected Summer 2005 by The
Madison County Genealogical & Historical Society and Huntsville Lodge #364,
Free and Accepted Masons.”This
monument is located on private property and cannot be visited without prior
permission.

Monument marking the site of The Huntsville Massacre,
surrounded by Confederate flags and eight grapevine wreaths bearing the names
of the eight men who died here on 10 January 1863.Justin Phillips, a descendant of the Vaughn family who
owned the farm at the time of the Massacre, played “Amazing Grace” on his
bagpipes at the dedication ceremony. He can
be seen in the background.

Monument
marking the site of The Huntsville Massacre, surrounded by Confederate flags
and eight grapevine wreaths bearing the names of the eight men who died here on
10 January 1863.Doug Dobbyn, member of
Huntsville Masonic Lodge No. 364, is shown conducting the memorial ceremony
honoring the men who were Masons.

Cassie Boehm and Shane Crusha place mussel shells and
wildflowers at the base of the monument honoring the men who died in the
Huntsville Massacre, while Confederate flags and grapevine wreaths bearing the
names of the deceased, surround the monument in the background.The symbolic lambskin apron and sprig of
evergreen placed on the monument to honor the Masonic brothers, can be seen on
top of the monument.

Cassie Boehm and Shane Crusha place mussel shells and
wildflowers at the base of the monument following the tradition of honoring the
men who died here, as Luella Woods looks on.

Members of the First Arkansas Light Artillery, Sons of
Confederate Veterans, and other local Civil War re-enactors, fire three volleys
of shots from muskets at the dedication in a tribute to the men who died here.

This is just a synopsis of the more detailed information
that is available about this event. The Madison County Genealogical &
Historical Society has published a 40 page book entitled “The Huntsville
Massacre”, which includes all of the detailed information about the Massacre,
as well as color photos of the monument and the dedication ceremony. The Historical Society is located in the old
public library building in the Huntsville Community Center, and we invite you
to stop by and take a look at this book and the many others that we have on the history of Madison County.